Hey, guys! Sorry for another short chapter, but we are officially out of Neverland and moving on to greater and more wicked things with it.
New York City Serenade
One Year Ago
The purple, thunderous cloud disappeared from around the group, newly transported to the Enchanted Forest.
Emerlyn looked down at herself. She was barefoot again, feet as grimy as they had been when they left Neverland. Her clothes were the same tattered old dress she'd worn while there, and her black hair was knotted and tangled again, making her look like the wild Lost Girl she had been not so long ago.
She was back to being something she never wanted to be again.
Emer stood with her father and tried desperately to untangle her hair with her fingers as Snow White and Prince Charming chatted with the prince and princess whose picnic they had accidentally interrupted.
"You're going to pull all of your hair out, Em," Killian warned softly, pushing her hand away from her dark tangled locks gently. "Be patient. We'll get you to a hairbrush soon."
"I forgot what it was like to have it untangled," she explained quietly. "And now that I remember, it's driving me mad for it to be like this."
Killian kissed the tangled mess on top of her head. "You'll get it sorted, Em. Just be patient."
She sighed heavily. "I'll try my best."
The pirate smiled at her before turning his attention toward the pair of princes and princesses.
"If you need anything," the dark-haired prince told them quickly, "we are at your service."
"Thank you," David said just as quickly. "But all we need are horses. We have our own kingdom, our own castle…"
"Our castle was destroyed in the curse," Snow White reminded him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Well played, Your Majesty," Killian told Regina simply. "You laid waste to everything."
Emer couldn't help but snort a little.
"Not everything," the brunette princess assured the group quickly. "Her castle still stands."
"Of course it does," Regina said simply, like it was obvious. "I protected it."
"Well, technically, the castle doesn't belong to her," David pointed out. "It was Snow's before she took it."
"Well," Regina objected as she took a step toward the Charmings. "To be fair, I married into it."
"That you did," Snow said, like she had a moment of realization. "And now we're taking it back. And you are coming with us."
Emer raised an eyebrow at the princess. Nothing about this made any sense to her. Granted, before she was trapped on Neverland, she was raised on a ship. She understood naval rankings much more than she did this stuff with princes, princesses, kings, and queens.
Regina scoffed a little, an expression of disbelief fully on her face. "You can't be serious."
"Regina, everyone out there is scared and confused," Snow reminded quickly. "They need hope. What better way to do it than to return united?"
Regina looked a bit disgusted as Snow finished.
"You're coming with us. I know you don't like it. You'll learn to. For our good. For yours."
David turned back to the other royal couple. "Thank you again for the hospitality. We should begin preparations."
He shook the other prince's hand has the darker haired on replied with, "Good luck to all of you."
The group of four adults and the teen left the gazebo to ready themselves for the ride to Regina's castle.
Emer waited beside her father's black and white paint horse as he loaded down the saddlebags. "Papa, why do you need all this? David said Regina's castle isn't that far."
He took a deep breath and turned fully to his daughter, kneeling to reach her level. "You're not gonna like this, Em."
"You're not going," she said softly, her expression falling and her blue eyes growing sad. She felt like he'd just stuck his hook in her heart. "And you won't let me go with you."
"I'm so sorry, Em," he said softly, brushing her hair back from her face. "I'm not sure where this journey will take me, and I cannot put you in danger."
"I thought we were supposed to be together again," she whispered, her voice breaking as tears brimmed in her eyes. "I thought we were supposed to be a family."
"We are a family," Killian replied instantly, wiping away her tears as they fell down her cheeks, the sight of her sadness nearly making them fall from his eyes. "You're everything to me, Emerlyn."
"Then why are you leaving me?" She asked desperately, holding onto his hand so tight that Killian thought she might bruise it.
"Because I hope this means I can give you the life you deserve when I return," he promised, rising to his feet and planting a kiss on her forehead. "I love you, my bright star." He slipped her star journal from his coat and left it in her hands. "Chart all the stars you can for me. I promise we'll look at them all when I return. From the Jolly Roger."
He swung himself into the saddle of his paint horse and took off with a snap of the reins. He couldn't look back. He knew if he did, he would change his mind. But he was doing this for her. If he found Emma, if Emma chose him, they could finally have the complete family that Emer deserved.
Emer's legs gave out from under her, and she sat on the ground, curled around her star journal, and cried, managing to reduce the sound to just frequent sniffles as she trembled.
Why wasn't she enough?
Emer sniffled softly as she held onto the saddle-horn of David's horse, her star journal tucked away in the saddlebag and a borrowed cloak from Snow White wrapped around her shoulders as the prince led his horse down the path toward Regina's castle. He'd let the former—well, she supposed she was fully lost once again—Lost Girl ride his white horse after he'd seen the mess her father left her in.
He was making sure that someone took care of her, whether it was her father or not. Emer deserved a family. While they were here, he and Snow would give it to her, take care of her.
He just wished there was something he could do to fill the hole her father had left behind.
"Regina's castle's just beyond the mountains," Snow assured softly after a sad glance at the teen on David's horse.
"Snow," David said as he tried to lighten his wife's mood. "I think you mean our castle."
"That's going to take some getting used to," the dark haired princess commented. "The last time I was there was just after my father's death. And I've always dreamed of returning. I just never imagined it would be with Regina by our side."
Emer looked up slowly when she saw one of the dwarves catch up to Snow White.
"I wouldn't count on that, sister," Grumpy told her quickly. "The Queen, she's missing."
Snow stopped and sighed, her expression more than concerned.
Emer wasn't sure where this was going, but with the pattern they were currently in, she knew it couldn't be good.
Emer felt herself sitting up a little straighter in the saddle alongside the new additions of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, almost wanting to ask David to let her out of the saddle. It felt so strange to be riding while everyone else walked anyway, but she knew David wouldn't let her down. He was afraid she'd fall behind. And it she was honest with herself, she didn't want to get mixed up in the back with dwarves and Merry Men. There were too many of them.
She restored to listening to Regina and Snow talk about the new arrivals.
"So what do you think of our new friend?" Regina asked after she let Emer sing a healing tune to close up the cuts on her arm. "Can we trust him? He is a thief."
"Think of it from his perspective," Snow pointed out. "How do you think he looks at you?"
Regina nodded a little, like she agreed. "Point taken."
Snow White chuckled a little before looking at the queen. "He's kinda cute, huh?"
Regina looked at her with narrowed eyes. "He smells like forest," she said, almost defensively.
Emer almost managed a giggle at that statement. She'd never heard that insult before.
It was only a few more minutes before they came upon a small trench that had been dug in the middle of their path, and David called, "Look."
"What happened?" Snow asked with a confused frown.
"That's exactly what I'm about to find out," Regina said simply as she stepped forward to examine the trench. She tapped the air in front of her lightly, and a green wave traveled across the expanse in front of the castle, which faded back to clear after only a moment. "A protection spell," the queen called in explanation. "The entire castle's encircled by it."
"Didn't you do this?" David asked, hand resting casually on his sword. "Undo it."
Emer had come to notice that was a preferred stance of his.
Regina turned back toward him defensively. "Well, don't you think if I could've, I'd be halfway home by now? No. Someone hijacked it."
"Spells can be stolen?" Emer asked in disbelief.
"Depends on the spell," Regina explained, making sure not to ignore the teen whose father had already left her.
"Like who?" Snow White asked, seeming to ready herself for action. "Who's in there?"
"I don't know," Regina replied as she turned back to face the castle. "But I'm gonna find out whoever's eating my porridge. Nobody sits in my chair. Nobody takes our castle."
"Hey," David called softly. "We've got a lot of people looking to us. They;'re scared, and rightfully so. Let's get them to safety first."
"They'll be safe when whoever's in there is dead," Regina replied, her ruthless logic bleeding through.
"Rushing in there is a bad plan, Regina," Snow replied with her much calmer form of rationality. "You know that."
"I can offer safe harbor in Sherwood Forest," Robin Hood offered, looking between the three leading adults. "It's not far. We can offer food, shelter, a thick canopy no creature will spy you under."
"Do you have weapons?" David asked quickly.
"We're lousy with them," Robin Hood promised.
"Fine," Regina caved, looking between him and the castle. "Lead the way. But we're coming back. And whoever did this is going to suffer."
"Regina, it's our home," Snow reminded. "We'll make it safe again."
Emer wondered what that meant would happen next.
Present Day
Killian rode in the front seat of Emma's yellow bug as they rolled back into the streets of Storybrooke. He couldn't help but feel a nervous twist start in his stomach as he wondered how his daughter would feel about seeing him again after a year.
A year. He never meant to leave her for a year, he never meant for it to take that long for him to find the Jolly Roger and use it to find a way back to Emma so he could give his daughter the family she deserved, the mother she deserved. Someone that could make them both happy.
He couldn't stop thinking about how angry she must've been, how guilty he felt. How much he regretted it. He just hoped she was safe with this new curse she had been trapped in, just like the others that were in the Enchanted Forest.
He just wished he knew where to start searching for Emerlyn.
Emer looked up from where she sat on the couch in David and Mary Margaret's apartment, looking through her star journal to see all of the new stars she'd mapped while in the Enchanted Forest over the year none of them could remember.
David opened the door and froze for a moment, breaking into a smile. "Emma."
"David?" The Savior said with a tone that was growing more and more hopeful.
Emer perked up immediately, closing her leather-bound journal. If Emma was there, maybe her father wasn't far away.
David embraced his daughter in a shocked, encompassing hug. "You remember."
"You remember," Emma repeated as she looked over her father with soft but confused eyes.
"Of course," David said quickly. "What are you doing here? Where…?" David quickly ushered her inside.
"Well, Hook found me," Emma started to explain. "He brought me here. He said you were cursed?"
Emer perked up immediately. "You know where he is?"
Emma looked at her in surprise. "I… Yeah, he brought me back here. I promise I'll go get him soon, okay? He was worried about you, too. He didn't know where you were either."
Emerlyn visibly relaxed. "Thank you, Emma."
"Of course," the blonde promised before she turned back to her father.
"We're back," David confirmed. "Or we never left. Or… Well, we don't know. But we're trapped again. Emer's been with us since we woke up, so none of us knew where Hook was. I guess she was spending some time with us when the curse hit."
"But you know who you are," Emma said like she was confirming it to herself.
"Emma, this curse…" David sighed a little. "We don't know who did it or why. All we know is our last year, it's been wiped away."
"Wiped away?" Emma asked in disbelief.
"All we remember is saying goodbye to you. Emer said the last thing she remembers was holding onto Hook when the curse hit. All of that feels like yesterday."
"But if you can't remember, then how do you know that it's been a…" Emma wondered, but trailed off quickly as Mary Margaret rushed down the stairs with a call of, "Emma?"
The Savior looked up toward her mother, expression shifting into one of complete shock as she slowly finished her statement. "...year?"
Snow White snatched her in a quick hug, but the shocked expression never left Emma's face.
"As you can see," David said as he put an arm around Mary Margaret's shoulders. "A lot's happened."
Emma looked down to her mother's very swollen belly again. It had definitely been a while.
Mary Margaret chuckled a little sheepishly. "We just don't know what. The whole year is gone."
"Who the hell would've done this?" Emma asked as she looked between her parents.
Emer slid off the couch, leaving her star journal sitting there carefully as she walked toward the adults. She was barefoot, but in pale blue, torn jeans and a black graphic tee shirt with an abstract looking design on it in bright blues and greens, her dark waves of hair were loose down her back, but tucked behind both ears. "Well, with Emma and my father back, we stand a better chance at finding out."